Valkyrie Profile (images from Tri-Ace's official Valkyrie Profile website)
By Kamui Shiro
System: Playstation
Developer: Tri-Ace

Introduction

I really wasn't sure what to make of Valkyrie Profile when I first picked it up at my local game store, since I usually don't by games I haven't tried out before. However, Enix, (now Square-Enix) had endeared itself to me by bringing Star Ocean 2 to the PS a few months prior to VP's release, so I decided to give it a chance. Needless to say, I wasn't dissapointed. Although the game itself is about 3 years old now, Valkyrie Profile is one of the most unusual and entertaining RPGs I've ever owned.

The Story

Set to the backdrop of Norse mythology, Valkyrie Profile casts the player into the role of Lenneth Valkyrie, demi-goddess and messenger of death. Odin, leader of the Norse gods, orders you to collect souls of the dead in order to fight against the dark forces planning to use Ragnarok (the Twilight of the Gods) to destroy the Earth. You must recruit and train slained warriors to send to the man upstairs, and you must bestow upon your chosen ones the necessary experience to join Odin's finest.

You guide Valkyrie through 2D side-scrolling dungeons resembling classic games such as Actraiser or Ys III. Although completely non-linear, there's a time frame during which you must amass the holy army, adding an element of impending disaster to the quest.

The Game

The game's combat system is, in my opinion, the simplest and best I have ever played and one of the game's better features. The combat system blends an active button pushing system with an unobtrusive menu system that offers a variety of choices. It also allows you do something that very few RPG's do, it gives you an opportunity to change weapons, equipment, etc. while in the middle of a battle. This and other user friendly features make this an even better game.

Although the active involvement in RPG battles isn't a new concept, VP has made a fun system to utilizing buttons that have been lacking in depth. The various recruitable characters are classified into four types: swordsmen, spearmen, archers, and sorcerers. Weapons in VP have various elemental strengths, as well as a set number of times a character can attack with them in one turn, except for sorcerers, who are best kept at the back of the party out of harm's way. Weapons with high attack power can generally hit an enemy only once, while certain weapons with less power have a higher hit per turn capacity.Because sorcerers have such weak physical strength, they attack enemies by setting a certain spell in their sub-menu. Each of these character's attacks vary in direction, energy, and number of hits so strategy becomes involved in the use of the buttons.

As time goes on, enemies become tougher to handle since they can block your physical attacks. However, your character's weapons have different directions in where they strike an enemy, and since they can only block one direction at a time, the result is a "Guard Crush" which breaks their defense, and sometimes even induces dizziness. But while enemies can guard against physical attacks, magical spells are unblockable, which makes your sorcerers invaluable in starting off combo attacks. This is where the Special Attack Gauge at the bottom of the combat screen comes in. By delivering unblocked hits against an enemy, the Gauge fills up, depending on the number and power of each hit that connects. When it reaches 100, all the characters that contributed hits to the attack can make use of a devastating super technique called the "Purify Weird Soul" attack. The attacks vary with the character and are usually multi-hit assaults and are visually spectacular to look at. Sorcerers benefit the most from this by having whatever spell they used as a physical attack turned into a multi-hit attack as well, but when the sorcerer in question is equipped with a weapon that has "Big Magic" capacity, these spells are magnified on a fantastic and far more destructive scale.

Valkyrie Profile's voice acting is surprisingly good. Especially considering the awful example Star Ocean 2 set. Most of the VP's actors should be familiar to regular viewers of the Kids WB versions of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh; Megan Hollingshead (Mai, Yu-Gi-Oh) as Valkyrie, Rachael Lillis (Misty, Jessie) as Mystina, Veronica Taylor (Ash, Pokemon) as Freya, Eric Stuart (Brock, Pokemon/Kaiba, Yu-Gi-Oh) as Lucian, to name a few, lend their talents to the game, and the result is impressive, if not entirely flawless.

The game's music, composed by Motoi Sakuraba (Golden Sun, Star Ocean), is laden with powerful tracks, particularly the main battle and boss fight music. The graphics are a triumph of 2-D animation and are incredibly detailed. Another cool feature of VP is its multiple endings--well, there's only 3 of them, but getting the best ending requires you to go against Odin's orders a bit. Doing so, however, opens up an optional dungeon laden with powerful enemies, three secret characters that are usually unplayable in the game's normal mode, and a host of treasures to be claimed. As you progress further, sound bytes from your characters, as well as the bosses you face are added to the options menu for your listening pleasure, which is a nice touch.

Conclusion

Valkyrie Profile is a refreshing departure from your standard RPG, offering new elements and an easy learning curve. Amazingly enough, the game never really garnered the attention it deserved, but that in no way means it isn't worth of the effort to track down. Valkyrie Profile is excellent and a worthy addition to any game collection.

Kamui Shiro